August 23, 2016

This stupid vandalism took place in Australia, but it's getting attention in America, including a substantial article in the NYT. Presumably, we're supposed to be amused. But why?

1. Crocodiles are scary. But if you watch the video, you'll see that they are tiny crocodiles, and you'll hear that they'd been out of water for a long time and were actually in bad shape and suffering. The story isn't really about scary animals — at a distance, for our safe horror — but animal abuse, and abusing animals isn't funny.

2. Humpty Doo is a very funny name for a town. I'll give you that.

3. Half-naked men. It sounds racy at first, but wait a minute? Which half is naked? These are just men without shirts. These are men in shorts.

ADDED: Wikipedia says the name was originally Umpity Doo, perhaps based on "umpty" used by the Army to mean a Morse code dash or a corruption of an Aboriginal original word "Umdidu," but if the "h" was always there, the name could be slurred pronunciation of the English word "two" as "doo" and the idea that this was the second of more than one hump, and "humpty doo" might have been slang for "upside down." The Wikipedia article on Humpty Doo doesn't mention Humpty Dumpty, but he's a character in a nursery rhyme that's been around since at least 1797:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Four-score Men and Four-score more,
Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.

That's not the version we're familiar with, just the oldest. Some people think Lewis Carroll created the character, but he just appropriated and repurposed him. "Through the Looking-Glass" doesn't come out until 1872. Humpty Dumpty appears in a great little vignette, a favorite of lawyers and law professors. I'll boldface the part most likely to be quoted and cited in a law review article or judicial opinion:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they're the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"

So just let me introduce myselfMy name is Humpty, pronounced with a "umpty"Yo ladies, oh how I like to hump theeAnd all the rappers in the top ten--please allow me to bump theeI'm steppin' tall, y'all, and just like Humpty DumptyYou're gonna fall when the stereos pump meI like to rhyme, I like my beats funkyI'm spunky, I like my oatmeal lumpyI'm sick wit dis, straight gangsta mackBut sometimes I get ridiculousI'll eat up all your crackers and your licoriceHey yo fat girl, come here are ya ticklish?

I can see how the episode could be intriguing for the collection of so many tiny absurdities. What's the motivation? Why crocs and not cane toads? Why throw the crocs inside through the broken door then open the door and walk through it? Why the ridiculous outfits? What's the frequency, Kenneth?

I've heard when you order a beer in Australia they serve it to you in an oil can...

The Aussie accent is believed to derive from the first transported convicts — petty thieves, con artists, and drunken roisterers mostly, nothing too nasty — who were overwhelmingly of London stock. While we associate Cockney with the East End, there's linguistic evidence that something like modern Cockney was spoken throughout metropolitan London in the 18th century. Given the Cockney habit of dropping initial H's from where they belong and attaching them to where they don't, that may explain Humpty Doo.

Quaestor said...The Aussie accent is believed to derive from the first transported convicts — petty thieves, con artists, and drunken roisterers mostly, nothing too nasty — who were overwhelmingly of London stock.

Line casually uttered by Australian woman in Flight of the Conchords:"You couldn't get more Australian than me. My great-great-grandpa was a renowned rapist, and they shipped him out to Australia and that's where he met my great-great-grandma; she was a prostitute. You know, I said "met" but he raped her."

Though I've heard from an unreliable source that, way-back-when, half the population of Virginia was (were?) "transported" indentured criminals.

Wrong. Indentured servants in colonial America were seldom criminals. Mostly they fit two categories: debtors and younger sons without property. The indentured could discharge a debt by "selling" themselves into servitude for a contracted period. Those without property would also trade a contract of servitude for a the costs of transportation.

My ancestor, John Howland, was an young indentured servant aboard the Mayflower. He did this voluntarily to pay for his journey and had to work for a number of years to pay off the debt. Then he was a Freeman in the colony.

Ron Winkleheimer: I always thought the most interesting part of that passage is:

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Especially in light of George Orwell and political correctness.

Defining words is just the starting point.

I think Anglican deacon, mathematics don, and literary nonsense author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson had a very keen sensitivity to the use of language, the difference between symbol and what is signified by it, and the role of interpretation—along with the danger of overinterpretation.

The man was a genius, and sometimes it's easy to overlook the literal genius amidst the deliberate nonsense.